A milling machine is a type of work machine which is utilized to mill asphalt, concrete, or other types of road materials such that a worn road surface may be removed and subsequently replaced with a new road surface. Such milling machines typically include a milling drum which has a number of cutting teeth secured thereto. Rotation of the drum causes the cutting teeth to mill or otherwise cut the material associated with the worn road surface. The cut material is then advanced by the milling drum to a conveyor system associated with the milling machine in order to convey or otherwise transport the cut road material to a dump truck or the like for removal from the work site.
During operation of the milling machine, it is often necessary to perform cuts of varying widths. For example, the milling machine may be required to cut a section of asphalt having a width of two feet at a first work site, and thereafter be required to cut a section of asphalt having a width of three feet at a second work site. Such a requirement to perform cuts of varying widths has been particularly difficult for certain milling machines which have heretofore been designed. In particular, in order to change the cutting width of certain heretofore designed milling machines, the entire milling drum must be removed from the machine and thereafter replaced with a second milling drum having the desired cutting width. Such an exchange of the entire milling drum is extremely time consuming and labor intensive thereby potentially resulting in extended downtime of the milling machine.
In order to eliminate the need to exchange the entire milling drum when it is desirable for a change of cutting width, milling drums have heretofore been designed with removable cutting sections or segments. The cutting segments may be selectively added or removed from the milling drum in order to change the cutting width of the milling drum thereby eliminating the need to remove the entire milling drum from the milling machine. However, heretofore designed segmented milling drums have a number of drawbacks associated therewith. For example, segmented milling drums which have heretofore been designed typically include a complex mounting assembly for mounting each of the cutting segments to an outer surface of the milling drum which contains a relatively large number of components. In addition, such mounting assemblies also require a number of complex mounting features to be machined or otherwise fabricated on the outer surface of the milling drum. Moreover, the cutting segments associated with segmented milling drums which have heretofore been designed are relatively large, bulky objects which weigh as much as several hundred pounds apiece thereby requiring a plurality of technicians to install or remove the cutting segments to/from the milling drum. In addition, heretofore designed segmented milling drums typically require unique milling chambers and drive assemblies thereby increasing the complexity associated with retrofit of the segmented milling drum into an existing milling machine design. What is needed therefore is a segmented milling drum assembly which overcomes one or more of the above-mentioned drawbacks.